electric boiler installed with triangle tube w/side arm.

CPHNed

customer is looking at doing this: He currently has a triangle tube with 75 gallon side arm.

Ive not done something like this before. He is looking at worst case scenario where electricity and natural gas are cut off temporarily.

He is installing propane tank, whole house l.p. generator for the power to boiler(and house) but doesn't want to run l.p to another gas boiler.(possible pv system in future)

my question: will the primary pump circulate sufficiently through the electric boiler and back into the radiant and IWH setup?

The electric boiler will only fire when the triangle tube faults out due to loss of gas and electric(the generator will kick on and provide power to electric boiler) the controls will also r(eceive electricity, and, will continue to run while triangle tube is faulted.

He will have to reset triangle tube after restoration of nat. gas.

The electric boiler is undersized due to whole house generators limits after feeding rest of house, but he just wants to have hot water(and some radiant) temporarily until gas and electric are restored.

triangle tube-175,000 btu

electric boiler 24kW

I believe its a Grundfos 1558 that I am questioning. Part of me thinks it will be fine, but part of me wants to hear from others, as i have not done something like this before.

thx, Mark

Jamie Hall

Either the generator can run the boiler — or it can't. If it can't, the whole project is moot.

Your client — or you — really need to run the numbers to determine how much electric power he needs and how much heat he needs for the house. I have an uneasy suspicion that this hasn't happened. If the Triangle Tube is even remotely correctly sized, that's the equivalent of 50 kilowatts, and his little electric boiler is nownere near that. Further, it is unlikely that he is contemplating a 50 plus KW generator — never mind a 50 KW PV/battery system.

He will be much better off all the way around with converting the Triangle Tube to LP — if that can be done — or getting an LP boiler and an LP water heater and an LP generator (Odds are that with that combination he can run around a 15 KW generator to power the whole show).

Run the numbers and find out what really can be done. Reality check time.

Hot_water_fan

if the client has money to burn, consider the lochnivar cogeneration unit!

The key here is just understanding the trade offs. In this oddball scenario, do you need to heat or power the whole house ? Could some nice sleeping bags and some AA flashlights suffice? A wood stove?